2023-07-11 09:01:24
When Ivy Berubes, 22, orders a Shirley Temple at the bar of the Mexican restaurant Sarapes, they make it for her even though it’s not on the menu. Also not on the menu is the Tommy Bowl, a deconstructed burrito, but 20-year-old Tommy Agramonte can order it; after all, he is named after him. Sade Guess, 21, favors birria tacos, another dish that is not included on the menu.
Located in Enfield, a quiet Connecticut suburb near the Massachusetts border, Sarapes is owned by the Chávez Mellado family, who immigrated from Mexico in the 1980s.
“That is one of the reasons why we have been able to maintain ourselves in this country,” explains Adrian Martinez Chavez, the photographer for this report and whose grandparents Eduardo Chávez Solano and Cutberta Mellado de Chávez are the founders of the restaurant. His grandfather passed away a few years ago, and the place is now run by his grandmother and his aunt María del Carmen Chávez. Her cousins Xochitl and Zuyuani Llanas, 22 and 20 years old, are in charge.
What keeps these 20-somethings coming back to Sarapes again and again isn’t just the half-secret dishes on the menu or the impromptu conga that occasionally meanders between the tables. The space is a physical reminder of your parentage. When they visit Sarapes, they can go back to where it all began.
“My cousin called it ‘the headquarters’ because we always met there to talk about things,” he said. Xochitl.
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